Superintendent

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Dr. Jill Potkalitsky Dahlburg has been Superintendent of the Space Science Division (SSD) at the Naval Research Laboratory and a member of the U.S. Navy Senior Executive Service since December 2007. In this position she leads conception, planning, and execution of space science research and development programs with instruments to be flown on satellites, sounding rockets, and balloons; ground-based facilities; and mathematical models. Dr. Dahlburg served as NRL Senior Scientist for Science Applications from June 2003 to December 2007. Her duties included facilitating/expediting the accomplishments of the scientific missions of organizations within NRL, with emphasis on interdisciplinary areas of opportunity and distributed autonomous systems. From 2001 to mid-2003, Jill left NRL to work for General Atomics as the Director of the Division of Inertial Fusion Technology and Co-Director of the Theory and Computing Center. In 2000, she served as Head of the NRL Tactical Electronic Warfare Division’s Distributed Sensor Technology Office, where she co-proposed and was co-principal investigator for the first year of development of the small, expendable, unmanned aerial vehicle Dragon Eye, which saw active duty in Iraq. Jill began her federal career at NRL in 1985, working as a research physicist. As a member of the NRL Nike KrF Laser Program from its inception through 1999, she contributed to laser matter interaction research, implosion and coronal hydrodynamics, and laser beam imprinting. Her work included spearheading the development of the first three-dimensional multi-group radiation transport hydro-code appropriate for laser-plasma modeling. Jill holds a B.A. degree in liberal arts (1978) from St. John’s College in Annapolis, and an M.S. degree in physics (1980) and a Ph.D. degree in theoretical plasma physics (1985) from the College of William & Mary. She is 2013 Past Chair of the American Physical Society (APS) Panel on Public Affairs, Chair-Elect of the APS Mid-Atlantic Section, Chair of the Navy Space Experiments Review Board (2007-), and 2012 Past-Chair of the APS Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications. Her previous professional service includes serving as 2005 Chair of the APS/Division of Plasma Physics, Member of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Defense & Nuclear Technologies Director’s Review Committee (2001-2006), and Member of the National Research Council Committee: Quality of the Management of S&E at the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Laboratories (Phase-I, 2011; Phase-II, 2012). Her honors include six NRL Allan Berman Awards for scientific publication excellence and a DOE Appreciation Award presented by DOE Under Secretary for Science Raymond L. Orbach for outstanding service as the Chair of the DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee. Jill is a Fellow of the APS. (Click here for Dr. Dahlburg's full story)